Huskies shake off Wednesday’s loss; defeat Thunder Bay

Ryne Ryskoski

Duluth, Minn — The Duluth Huskies and the Thunder Bay Border Cats faced off Thursday night in the first of a two-game series. Duluth fell to Bismarck in a 21-0 blowout on Wednesday night and looked to get back on track by facing a different opponent. Ricky Reynoso took the mound for the Huskies in his season debut to face Alex Dafoe of the Border Cats.

Much like last night, the early portion of the ballgame was a pitcher’s duel as both teams logged just 2 hits each and scored no runs through the first 3 innings. Reynoso did a great job of pounding the strike zone early on as he allowed no walks through his first 2 times through the order.

The Border Cats would break through with a 2 out triple from Joe Jiminez in the top of the 4^th that scored Conor Allard and Thomas Grilli, making it 2-0 advantage Thunder Bay. Then the next batter Bryce Jorgensen induced an error to score Jiminez from 3^rd base, extending their lead to 3.

Xavier Bussey got his second hit of the evening in the bottom of the 4^th inning when he doubled to the right field wall, scoring Carter Putz from 1^st base who got on base via an error to lead off the inning. Bussey then stole 3^rd base and advanced home on a throwing error by the Catcher Joe Jiminez to make it 3-2 Thunder Bay. Wade Meckler then tied up things at 3 with a run-scoring double that brought home Justin Moore from 2^nd base, and Lance Ford kept the party going when he brought home Christian Kirtley and Wade Meckler with a single up the middle to give Duluth a 5-3 lead as the 5^th inning got started.

Duluth resumed scoring the next inning when Carter Putz led off the inning with a single and was brought home on a Ramon Enriquez double off the left-center field wall to stretch the Huskies’ lead to 3. Alex Dafoe’s night would end afterward with 7 runs to his name (6 earned) on 7 hits, 4 walks, and 3 strikeouts over the course of 4 innings. He would be replaced by Lucas Reid who induced two groundouts, but Justin Moore then found a hole up the middle to bring home Enriquez and give Duluth a 4-run lead. Austin Breazeale would relieve Reid in the bottom of the 6^th inning.

Rick Reynoso would be replaced by Evan Yedinak as the 7^th inning began. Reynoso pitched a solid game, giving up 3 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits, walked 2, and struck out 7 Border Cats over 6 IP. Other than the 4^th inning when Thunder Bay put up 3 runs, he was able to throw 5 scoreless innings. After Yedinak set down the side in order, Jordan Jackson would come in to pitch for Thunder Bay in his season debut.

Alex Rao would be the 3^rd pitcher of the night for Duluth as he took the mound in the 8^th inning and struck out the side. Wade Meckler would get his 4^th hit of the night and his 2^nd RBI when he doubled home Justin Moore in the bottom of the 8^th. With his 4-5 performance tonight, Meckler improved his batting average to .302 on the season. Rao was back on the bump for the 9^th inning and allowed one run but eventually locked up the game one win for Duluth by a final score of 8-4.

Ricky Reynoso was able to throw lots of strikes and keep opposing batters from getting free bases, as he walked only 2 Border Cats in tonight’s ballgame. “I like to pound the strike zone as much as possible, I don’t want to take too much time and like to keep things going”, he said about his debut performance. Reynoso featured a deadly changeup that continuously kept hitters off balance at the plate, leading to 7 strikeouts for the University of the Pacific product. “Being able to throw my changeup to any count, anywhere, to anyone is my greatest strength; I feel comfortable with it. I honestly feel more comfortable with my changeup than my fastball.”

The Huskies the Border Cats once again tomorrow night at Wade Stadium as Duluth goes for the sweep. First pitch is set for 6:35 pm with live game coverage on 92.1 The Fan and twinportssportshub.com beginning at 6:25 pm. All Duluth Huskies and Northwoods League games are live streamed online at portal.stretchlive.com/nwl to watch.

Be sure to follow the Duluth Huskies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat all season long. Check out duluthhuskies.com for tickets to upcoming games. For more in-depth news on the Huskies, be sure to follow @XtraInningsWithRyne and @JoeChatzHuskies on Facebook.

 

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The Duluth Huskies are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 26th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 200 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.duluthhuskies.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Huskies as your favorite team.